I Win In Cars
by MonsterChibiJaxmine
Summary: A glimpse through Erol's eyes around the time of the Class 1 race and a bit of  canon, I think  backstory on him. He's not a nice guy. At all. Songfic. Lots of hints at Jak/Keira, but as it's Erol's perspective, not in too positive a light.


**a/n: I love songfics! Because of that, I decided to write one. I don't know if it's quite normal as far as songfics go, the lyrics wound up woven through the fic instead of being a basis. Eh. Plus it made me feel grossed out to write this…I made Erol have some serious creeper time, and Keira got shown in what I think are some of her worst moments…so I think I showed her weaker than she really is in the game…**

**Oh, and a heads-up: I'm really stuck on the day of the Class 1 race, and if I can get my lazy butt to do it, this snippet might get eaten by a longer...mini-series? Yeah. **

**Anyways, hope ya like it!**

**Review if you want **

**Little disclaimer monster: It's up to Sony to make official plushies, since I don't own the Jak and Daxter. **

**Other little disclaimer monster: I don't own the lyrics to Cars by Gary Numan. I don't own Gary Numan, either.**

Erol, for all of his flaws, loved the blue-haired mechanic he called Keira. Of that much he was sure, no matter what his Baron said about idle flirting. Or even what he did to that ecofreak in prison. He still knew he loved her when the freak and his rat were running rampant around his city. It was because of that he hadn't killed her in retribution.

Here in my car

He loved her smile. He loved how kind she was to everyone she met, even if they were pitiful slummers. She, for some odd reason, treated them like equals. He loved how her demeanor contrasted so violently with her clothes- which were almost as revealing as Ashelin's. He adored the fact that she could actually do something useful, unlike most of the women in this forsaken city. She was one of the best mechanics he'd met in his long tenure as a racer. It was because of that that they had met, over a year ago, when she had been in desperate need of a friend in what she called a 'strange' place.

I feel safest of all/

But what he loved most of all about her had to be how innocent she was- how impressionable she was. She was practically untouched by the realities of Haven, shut away in her Garage in the nicest part of town. That made her pliable to Erol, and to him, it was as if she were an angel from another planet, born to be his plaything.

I can lock all my doors/

She had needed a friend, lost and alone in Haven, and Erol had risen to the occasion. By the time that freak had broken out of prison, Keira's trust in him was something he took for granted. He didn't need to ask for her confidence anymore- he just told her things, some of which were true, some of which he wanted to be true, and some things he just wanted to say. He even let slip parts of the DWP that would have gotten him killed had the Baron found out. She swallowed all of his lies, half-truths and horror stories eagerly, and he found out why in her own outpourings.

It's the only way to live/ in cars

She and her friends had passed through something called a "rift gate" from a place called Sandover, which Erol didn't care much about, but he faked it. Since, she'd discovered that this _was _Sandover, 500 years in the future and warped completely. Erol didn't care much about that, either. However, based on her stories, Erol deduced who one of her 'friends' was, and used the information to torment the blond in prison.

It's not like the mechanic knew what he was doing, though, so she kept listening to all of his angst, always attentively and sympathetically. _And _she told him little things about her old home; plenty to torment the boy he'd learned was "Jak".

In other words, it was a perfect win-win.

Here in my car/ I can only receive

Erol knew with more than the gut feeling he'd had for nearly a year that he'd fallen for her the day the ecofreak finally realized who she was. When he viewed the monitors he'd secretly placed in her garage, anyway.

I can listen to you

He saw the disgust in her face, the fear written there plainly, and chuckled. He could tell that that had hurt the "man" in the garage with her, which was yet another point in his fight with the freak. He decided then, watching the blue recorded images on his screen, that he loved her.

It keeps me stable for days/ in cars

So, the next day, when he went and visited Keira, he gently, as gently as he possibly could, pulled the meeting out of her memory. She broke down, all of her dreams about re- meeting Jak and Daxter shattered, and he held her through her tears. When she was done, he glared in her eyes and vowed to protect her from the person she'd once called 'friend'. She said she didn't need it, but he thought he saw flickers of relief in her green depths.

Here in my car/ where the image breaks down

Later, days later, Erol finally cut out a section of his schedule to speak to Keira again. It had taken more work than usual- his Baron had been keeping him busy on missions. But, though it been a while, Keira was glad to see him. Like always. She still was fighting with her outlaw, and because Erol loved her and hated him, he figured he had an opportunity.

Will you visit me please-

He started to tell her how he felt, looking down at his two hands clasping her slim one. They were sitting on her vehicle repair bench nearest the door, and the flat light from the lamps in the garage still left her machine-toughened hands beautiful. When he thought he was done, without looking at her face, he leaned in, expecting her soft lips to brush against his. Instead, he felt a small but firm hand pressing against his chest, holding him back. Erol's eyes fluttered open in shock. Keira's face swam to life in his view, her face a little sad, but resolute. She told him she couldn't like him that way.

If I open my door

For a moment, Erol couldn't do anything but stare at her. Here was the girl, the woman he'd fallen for, the one thing he'd tried to win for himself in his years, and he couldn't catch her? He couldn't get the first thing he wanted and tried for on his own?

Erol clenched his teeth as the anger took over. He ripped Keira's hand off of his chest and stood. Keira rose a second after, hoping she hadn't ruined her friendship with the redhaired racer, and she put the hand that had pushed him away out, trying to bring him back.

She was looking for a place to put her hand as Erol began to speak. The man didn't look at her face once to see how the words he spoke shattered her concerned expression, and he didn't look back as he stormed out of the garage, leaving Keira standing there with her eyes wide all the way and her hand still dangling limply in front of her.

Erol didn't think he regretted it. She was stupid, just like everyone else in this city, and it was her fault she didn't love him back. And it was her fault she hadn't figured out who he was talking about when he mentioned the Dark Warrior Program. So, that night, when he heard her angry muttering, then something breaking, then a few muffled sobs from the audio bugs he'd placed in her garage, he rolled over, turned the volume knob on his bedside table up, then smiled sourly at his ceiling, covered in his blankets. The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was one of Keira's tiny sob-hiccups.

In cars/

The next day was the Class 1 race. Erol stretched, dressed, and ate silently, listening hard to the transmissions coming from Keira's garage. He heard that outlaw and his rat enter. He heard them speak, actually getting along. It made him grit his teeth. But what made him drop his spoon to the table, sending a small clank and a few specks of milk flying, was the compliment her heard her give him. That should have been his alone, especially not that _freak's._ Erol slammed his fist into the table, shoved himself up, and got ready to leave.

Here in my car/

Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up alongside the freak and his rat under the glare of the stadium lights. He sized them up. They looked pathetic, as usual, but they weren't good enough for that word. Erol sneered. He couldn't resist. He had to tell that monster and his rat. He glared at them from under his mask and tried to tell the ecofreak how he wanted him alone so he could rip his soul from his flesh and rape it- but he couldn't get all of it out before his hate rose up and choked him. He settled for giving them a vicious grin as the Baron began the race countdown.

I know I've started to think/

But the second the green light flashed, the outlaw flew over his car and into the shortcut nearby. Erol tried to follow, but he couldn't turn his handlebars fast enough. As the race wore on, Erol realized the freak was going to win. It was close- Erol was ahead for a good chunk of the third lap, and he'd gloated about it as much as he could in the moment- but that freak and his stupid rat had pulled ahead by the beginning of the fourth lap. Now they were at the end of that, and they were so far ahead Erol couldn't see them. If that freak won, it would be twice, counting that street race. Erol bared his teeth, gassing the zoomer as hard as he could, but he couldn't keep up. His eyes kept clouding with the memory of Keira smiling, _his_ Keira smiling at that ecofreak like he was worth any more than a specimen in a jar. Which he wasn't.

About leaving tonight/

A minute or so later, Erol heard the fanfare that meant that the race was over, that the outlaw had won. Erol's hands slipped on the handlebars, nearly sending him into the gutter nearby. He righted himself with a growl. How was he supposed to win Keira now? But he heard the other racers coming up behind him, so he decided to at least finish the race.

As he rounded the final corner, he saw it. The Baron was talking to the ecofreak, and the freak and his rat were on the ground. Perfectly prone targets- and his chance at redemption.

Erol glanced up at the stands, hoping for a glimpse of Keira seeing him win her forever. There was no trace of her, so he'd just have to settle her watching this over and over. He knew she would. There's no way she'd not obsess over it. Either the loss of "her Jak" or his victory or maybe even both would make her want to see it over and over. Erol gunned the engine, saying the words he would repeat as the freak and his rat lay bleeding in front of him. Erol gunned the engine, then let it rip. Just before his zoomer impacted them, some traitorous KG let out a yell. Erol saw the rat look behind him, and alert his fellow outlaw, and the blonde dodged right, leaving Erol to fly straight into Jak's would-be prize of Dark Eco, agony, insanity, and ultimately oblivion.

He never knew he was the reason Jak survived Baron Praxis' order to kill him on the spot, and that might have been an undeserved mercy.

Although nothing seems right/

Years later, an eighteen year old Keira returned from Kras City to find a repaired garage, courtesy of a finished war and race winnings, and a mysterious set of broken cameras stacked haphazardly on a table set up for their holding. The note the repairmen had left unnerved her slightly, but the name scrawled on the bottom of the cameras unnerved her more. She threw the cameras away without a second thought.

In Cars/


End file.
